Repairing my 1980 GS450

[Cdnpt1]

Looks the same, it is a sealed unit, you have to buy a whole big bulb, and advance carries them? Cool. The 450l has removable small bulb that can be replaced in the big bulb. Lot cheaper and easier. Thanks for the heads up. Going to look at an 850 on the weekend.

[apopleptic]

I'm pretty sure that replacement was about $7.
I think I had to replace the plug with the standard one, but I would bring the original to the auto parts store and see what they have that will match.

[bigbeardan]

hey man, really enjoyin this thread so far! really inspiring me to do more with mine. Ive got an 80 gs450l, i was really surprised our bikes look as different as they do to be basically the same. I got mine running and in remarkable shape so i wasnt worried bout digging in as far as you but now im ready to go to the shop and get busy. hopefully i will get some more riding in before gettin too cold(ignitor went out but buying one from elevatorman71). keep the work goin and the pics comin!

[Cdnpt1]

Are you doing the valve cover red as well? What was the final color decision or did I miss that? Turns out I had a spare bulb hidden in the garage, wonder what else I have forgotten bout. Went out to take her for a daylight spin and discovered a hole in the tank. Crap. So my next experiment will be to see if jb weld is all it's cracked up to be.

[apopleptic]

BBD, welcome to the forum. glad you like what you see so far.
You should check out the build by Pete, way more involved than mine, and he uses these fancy thumbnails so his images don't suck up your whole screen.
You should update your signature with you bike and update your profile with your location.

Cdnpt, pretty awesome about that spare bulb. If you don't need it and you haven't tossed it yet can I have the old one? wanted to try modifying it be a non sealed bulb.

I haven't figured out the color the valve cover will be yet. I just know it needs some painting because its to contoured for me to sand down by hand. I was thinking about gloss black for it though to match the fork lowers.

I sprayed the tail and the front fender white just now.
Hard to tell after sunset, but I think it looks pretty OK.
I'm going to let it stand for 30 minutes or so then spray one more light coat of white. Then tomorrow it's time for some light sanding and perhaps another light white coat.
I honestly haven't decided 100% on the color scheme yet. I had another discussion going on it where I get some mixed feedback on it.
Part of me wants to paint it black with red racing stripes. I did manage to locate some thin tape for the stripes. I went with 1/2" (12.5mm) but they had all the way down to 1/16" which made me snicker a little bit...

[Cdnpt1]

Part of me wants to paint it black with red racing stripes. I did manage to locate some thin tape for the stripes. I went with 1/2" (12.5mm) but they had all the way down to 1/16" which made me snicker a little bit...

What, you don't want to pimp it Von Dutch style ?

Sure you can have that bulb, it's funny you mention that because that is what i did with it, I converted it to non sealed and put in one of those halogen bulbs they sell a million of when you search 450 parts on ebay. Got 4 miles and low beam burned out. Maybe you will have better luck with it.

I saw the thread on color schemes, I have nothing useful to offer unfortunately, though , heres my 2 cents, I think the black with red stripes looks sharp. I am just going to stick with the stock silver and blue when I get around to repainting mine. Hey, are you using rattlecans or do you have a compresser and gun?

[apopleptic]

What, you don't want to pimp it Von Dutch style ?

Sure you can have that bulb, it's funny you mention that because that is what i did with it, I converted it to non sealed and put in one of those halogen bulbs they sell a million of when you search 450 parts on ebay. Got 4 miles and low beam burned out. Maybe you will have better luck with it.

I saw the thread on color schemes, I have nothing useful to offer unfortunately, though , heres my 2 cents, I think the black with red stripes looks sharp. I am just going to stick with the stock silver and blue when I get around to repainting mine. Hey, are you using rattlecans or do you have a compressor and gun?

I do have a compressor, but I've been using a variety of Rustoleum enamels since I don't have the spray gun. I consider this practice really, next year I'd like to really tear this thing all the way down

[pete]

Mate she's comin' along nicely! I'm hoping to get primer on mine on Monday, fingers crossed...

The only thing I'll say about using the enamel is see if you can locate that 2K in a can clear coat. You don't want fuel messing with your paint job!

I was going to use an acrylic clear over the top of my 2K base coat, but I then discovered that any fuel touching it will turn the acrylic clear opaque, so I ditched that idea and forked out for the 2K clear...

[apopleptic]

Some more painting and sanding

[Etcheberri]

cool!
looks like a lot of coating is going on here,
how much coats you did on those parts!?

[apopleptic]

cool!
looks like a lot of coating is going on here,
how much coats you did on those parts!?

A fair question. I suppose I'm new to this so I'll tell you and you can tell me how wrong I am to have done it this way.
Most things are getting primer except for clear over polished metal and getting from 2 up to 4 coats depending on how much I had to sand back down. Nothing has gotten one coat, I'm sure part of that is my skill level. and anything that needed more than 4 coats is sanded back down to primer and done again.
I put two coats of black on the valve cover. three on the fork lowers. five really on the fender, but I had sanded alot of the first three layers back down to primer because I scuffed up the top of it. two on the tail. most of the red stuff only took two coats, except for the headlight which took 3 due to covering a repair in the plastic. A few things were originally done in flat black and then sanded down and repainted gloss. and alot of the pictures are taken with the flash on on a camera phone at night with wet paint.
I was planning on letting the paint cure for a few more days and then doing clear on what needs it. I'm really kicking myself at this point for not having started anything on the gas tank yet, so that may be my Monday.

[apopleptic]

Today starts my 'will gas dissolve my paint' test phase 2.
I test sprayed the side of a computer case since it is the only scrap metal I had handy to test on.
I did a bit of sanding, a rough simulated racing stripe in white and in black. a coat of red, and finally some clear coat.
Using Rustoleum engine and caliper enamels in some rattle cans. Then I let it cure for 3 days.

I ended up with some ripples in the clear coat because I put on too thick of a coat too soon, but I figure since this is a test that should be fine.

Now I splashed a few splashes of gasoline on the surface and let it dry to simulate the few little drips you may have when you fill the tank. Now I poured gasoline on the surface until it pooled and I'm letting it sit for 10 minutes on there before I try to wipe it off.


We'll see how much of the paint wipes right off. in a few more minutes.
Well after 10 minutes the gas had dried. And peeled.
Interesting to note that the second test I did held up a little better.

The place where the clear was too thick and ripply did not hold up at all really.


I guess I'll do one more test where I actually allow the full week for the paint to cure that is suggested on the can.

[pete]

Today starts my 'will gas dissolve my paint' test phase 2.
I test sprayed the side of a computer case since it is the only scrap metal I had handy to test on.
I did a bit of sanding, a rough simulated racing stripe in white and in black. a coat of red, and finally some clear coat.
Using Rustoleum engine and caliper enamels in some rattle cans. Then I let it cure for 3 days.

I ended up with some ripples in the clear coat because I put on too thick of a coat too soon, but I figure since this is a test that should be fine.

Now I splashed a few splashes of gasoline on the surface and let it dry to simulate the few little drips you may have when you fill the tank. Now I poured gasoline on the surface until it pooled and I'm letting it sit for 10 minutes on there before I try to wipe it off.


We'll see how much of the paint wipes right off. in a few more minutes.
Well after 10 minutes the gas had dried. And peeled.
Interesting to note that the second test I did held up a little better.

The place where the clear was too thick and ripply did not hold up at all really.


I guess I'll do one more test where I actually allow the full week for the paint to cure that is suggested on the can.

The guys on here occassionally post up about a 2K clear in a can. It has a button on the bottom you push in to activate it.

Pretty sure we don't get it here, but if I was doing a rattle can job I'd look into it as both enamel and acrylic clear will both react badly to fuel...

Just my 2c anyway...

And the rest of it is looking good so far too

[apopleptic]

Yeah, I'll have to take a look for something different.
The can does say that it's gas and oil resistant, but I suppose that is relative.
So in the mean time, I'm going to strip and repaint that panel and let it sit for the full cure time and test again. I imagine it should still be fine for the fender and the tail in the mean time.

[mlc216]

High temp engine clear holds up a lot better to gas then any other regular rattle can clear in my experience....except that push button mix kind.... but it's expensive and like one time use or something.